TV manufacturers need to quit making the brains behind the TV and stick to making dumb displays. With new models every year, I highly doubt you will be able to connect to service XYZ a few years down the road when the API changes.

TV manufacturers need to quit making the brains behind the TV and stick to making dumb displays. With new models every year, I highly doubt you will be able to connect to service XYZ a few years down the road when the API changes.

Precisely, consumer! Now that we've helpfully embedded all those ugly set-top boxes inside the TV, you can simply throw the TV away and buy a new one whenever the online streaming market shifts!

As we’ve pointed out, smart TVs are ill-equipped for downloading and playing with the latest apps, anyway, as few developers are designing for that interface; it’s the stock apps, like those oriented toward browsing and video-watching, that need to be solid.

Well aside from their being no consistent interface to develop to. Wouldn't the predominance of big-screen TVs mean that developers should be use to the 10" interface?

As we’ve pointed out, smart TVs are ill-equipped for downloading and playing with the latest apps, anyway, as few developers are designing for that interface; it’s the stock apps, like those oriented toward browsing and video-watching, that need to be solid.

Well aside from their being no consistent interface to develop to. Wouldn't the predominance of big-screen TVs mean that developers should be use to the 10" interface?

I was going to ask the same thing: will it snoop on my network better with WebOS than with Google TV?LG deserves more bad publicity for this.Although they're one of the few brands doing passive 3D TV with cheap no-battery glasses, which is a plus in my book.

Chromecast is such a good idea: Forget crappy smart TV operating systems with awkward user interfaces and limited online stores with half baked apps and use any smartphone or tablet you have laying around.

Chromecast hardware not only is far cheaper than what Smart TVs use for applications processing, but it is reasonably future proof, with the UI handed over to external devices that already do a much better job than any TV set, and will only improve with time.

Only the apps are missing. I hope Google soon wraps it up and opens the gates; and I hope they make it easy for the likes of LG and Samsung to build in Chromecast in their sets.

Maybe the problem is that you cannot count on users having a smartphone or a tablet. Maybe the new Google TV could be a simplified Android client running on the same hardware as chromecast, with a 10ft interface that would enable user interaction when a touch interface were absent... We'll see. I'm sure Google are working hard on this; It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Having owned both dumb and smart TV's. Give me a high quality dumb display and HTPC any day of the week. It's not only the most convenient option to use, it's also the most flexible. Best of all you're not stuck hoping the vendor will provide updates for the life of your TV once that vendor releases a new model.

I don't want Google to control my TV. They have too much info already. But LG has recently proven they are not trustworthy themselves.

Taking a display that should be good for 10+ years and building in a computing device that will be good for 1-2 years just does not seem like a good idea.

On the other hand, WebOS is eminently hackable, and I mean that in the good sense. More so than Android. If LG has not changed that (and we don't know), it will be easy for users to patch and modify everything about the UI, and easy for them to share those modifications with others. That possibility is exciting to me. (And, if still true here, it might be possible to do a privacy audit on the OS, addressing the first point above.)

I gotta say, I find the whole smart TV thing a huge turn-off. Not that I don't like what it provides, but having it built into the set makes me REALLY nervous. I'm completely happy with a chromecast / appletv / whatever plugged into the back, knowing that I can swap it out when it becomes outdated without having to toss a $1k+ screen too. I just have this picture of three or four years down the road, a bad update (or series of bad updates) leaving me with an unusable set, thanks to a feature I didn't want in the first place.

I mean, I get that it's unpatriotic not to buy a new TV every couple years, but I'm a crusty old man like that.

Having owned both dumb and smart TV's. Give me a high quality dumb display and HTPC any day of the week. It's not only the most convenient option to use, it's also the most flexible. Best of all you're not stuck hoping the vendor will provide updates for the life of your TV once that vendor releases a new model.

I bought a Visio Smart TV on Black Friday, got it home and tried it out. Took it back, bought a Roku-Ready Insignia instead. Ordered my Roku stick and am much happier. Way cheaper and way better. The only reason I wanted smart was so there was just *one* remote, and Roku-ready TVs ensure that too.

The Smart TV was mostly bad because it was so slow. It took 10 seconds to turn on, 10 seconds to show this sidebar with Netflix in when you pushed the remote's Netflix button. The sidebar had one button in it asking you to press enter if you actually wanted to run Netflix (LOL, presumably this step is because everything is so slow they don't want you to accidentally tear your hair out), it then took more than 30 seconds to load Netflix. Using Netflix was unacceptably slow also, but at least the quality of the Netflix streams were fine.

I wish I could just get giant PC monitors. Those things are basic and better, ie. they know when a source has signal and turn themselves on and off automatically. I wouldn't even need a remote for the "TV" portion.

I gotta say, I find the whole smart TV thing a huge turn-off. Not that I don't like what it provides, but having it built into the set makes me REALLY nervous. I'm completely happy with a chromecast / appletv / whatever plugged into the back, knowing that I can swap it out when it becomes outdated without having to toss a $1k+ screen too. I just have this picture of three or four years down the road, a bad update (or series of bad updates) leaving me with an unusable set, thanks to a feature I didn't want in the first place.

I mean, I get that it's unpatriotic not to buy a new TV every couple years, but I'm a crusty old man like that.

The funny thing though is even the non-smart TVs have firmware upgrades, so there's always the potential for something to go wrong.

Having owned both dumb and smart TV's. Give me a high quality dumb display and HTPC any day of the week. It's not only the most convenient option to use, it's also the most flexible. Best of all you're not stuck hoping the vendor will provide updates for the life of your TV once that vendor releases a new model.

"life of your TV" = 12 months + 1 day for most sets with a 1yr warranty. How many updates do you want in that length of time?

TV manufacturers need to quit making the brains behind the TV and stick to making dumb displays. With new models every year, I highly doubt you will be able to connect to service XYZ a few years down the road when the API changes.

Perhaps the biggest downside to the "smart device" revolution in which everything is also a computer, is that it puts companies into the software business who have no business being there. Televisions manufacturers, automobile manufacturers, and so forth.

TV manufacturers need to quit making the brains behind the TV and stick to making dumb displays. With new models every year, I highly doubt you will be able to connect to service XYZ a few years down the road when the API changes.

Perhaps the biggest downside to the "smart device" revolution in which everything is also a computer, is that it puts companies into the software business who have no business being there. Televisions manufacturers, automobile manufacturers, and so forth.

Well auto makers have been in the software business with the ECUs. The thing is the non-critical part of it they're having trouble with.

TV manufacturers need to quit making the brains behind the TV and stick to making dumb displays. With new models every year, I highly doubt you will be able to connect to service XYZ a few years down the road when the API changes.

Didn't Samsung sell a SmartTV a year or two ago with a "upgradeable" module?

TV manufacturers need to quit making the brains behind the TV and stick to making dumb displays. With new models every year, I highly doubt you will be able to connect to service XYZ a few years down the road when the API changes.

Perhaps the biggest downside to the "smart device" revolution in which everything is also a computer, is that it puts companies into the software business who have no business being there. Televisions manufacturers, automobile manufacturers, and so forth.

For me the biggest downside is the blatant tracking and advertising. The first thing you'll see on any smart TV that's connected to the internet (wired or WiFi) is that ads pop up on the TV. When I connected my Panasonic TV via WiFi, I'd see ads whenever I adjusted the volume. That's when I disconnected the TV from the Internet. I'd only plugged it in to toy with the smart features, most of which were sort of painful to use due to the interface. The only smart feature I like on my Panasonic GT50 is the ability to plug in a USB HDD and have the TV treat it as a DVR, totally bypassing the need to pay extra to DirecTV to rent their HDDVR receiver and DVR service.

One thing neither Google or Apple TV devices are getting, are App Stores where you can choose which apps you want installed. For AppleTV, you get a main screen littered with app icons, most of which you probably wont use and if you jailbreak your 1st or 2nd Gen, updates that give you new channels, undo the jailbreak and you have to wait for firecore to release a JB compatible with the latest iOS update.

I grew tired of updates hosing the jailbreak, so I ended up getting an Android based media player, looks identical to the AppleTV player (hong kong import), but works just like an android device, allowing me to install apps I want, in addition to keyboards, mice, etc. I just need for XBMC hardware acceleration to mature.

I talked to the LG group in Santa Clara a few months ago. It was clear that they were working on an API for this line of sets and intend to attempt to grow a third-party ecosystem. They seem to have recruited the "big guys" like Netflix to do an app for them but they want minor developers as well.

Why I don't know. Except for apps that play content, I'd have no use for third-party software. And I'd much rather have it on the HTPC (aka Mac Mini) rather than inside a set, where it is locked inside that silo. My little Plex HTPC can stream to any logged in device -- I think that's the way to go.

At the time, I didn't even think to ask whether they wanted to do this so that they could play NSA in the living room, but that story has come out since then. Perhaps spying/advertising is part of their motivation. It wouldn't be because Smart TVs of any brand are flying out of the stores.

Like the others, I prefer a dumb, spyware-free TV but the smartness is put into delivering a reference quality image. BTW, the Renown Siracusa has been running an ad-hoc TV calibration seminar on his accidental podcast and has posted some thoughts at hypercritical.co. That's the kind of "smartness' I'm interested in.

" Less than two months after the TouchPad launched, HP announced it was giving up not just on webOS, but its entire PC business."

Say what?

HP never announced any such thing. Ever. The article links to two-year-old rumors of what HP might have done as though it actually happened. As I look around, two years hence, It's pretty clear HP did not do this. Why report the announcement as fact when there was no such announcement, and why insinuate without evidence that HP is getting out of the PC business?

"all of the products seem half-baked and place the onus of figuring out the best way to use them on the customer at virtually every opportunity"

This is probably why we haven't seen anything from Apple yet. Apple prides itself on figuring that out themselves first, which is why they're often not the first out of the gate.

User experience matters.

Ahem... ever heard of Apple TV? Yeah, so many never have... So much pride down the drain so far! But I guess they will eventually figure it out, and it will surely be very nice, and probably very restrictive.

"all of the products seem half-baked and place the onus of figuring out the best way to use them on the customer at virtually every opportunity"

This is probably why we haven't seen anything from Apple yet. Apple prides itself on figuring that out themselves first, which is why they're often not the first out of the gate.

User experience matters.

Ahem... ever heard of Apple TV? Yeah, so many never have... So much pride down the drain so far! But I guess they will eventually figure it out, and it will surely be very nice, and probably very restrictive.

Yep. I have one. Its ease of use and how seamlessly my other devices work with it are what I like about it. It's well thought-out. Is it the set top box to end all set top boxes? Obviously, no. However, they didn't just slap some sh*t together and hope somebody else figures out what to make of it.

I just realized I referenced CNN as a source. Take my correction with a grain of salt...

Well, with respect, they never announced that they were getting out of the PC business. They said that they were exploring strategic alternatives for the operation. This means they were considering the possibility of getting out of the PC business. Had they decided that exiting the PC market made sense, then they would likely have made such an announcement. But they didn't go down that path, and no such announcement was made.

Outlets like CNN called HP's final decision a "reversal" to cover their own sloppy reporting of the initial announcement. Yes, these "investigating alternatives" messages are often preludes to a sale or spin-off, but not always.

I honestly have not seen the point of getting a SmartTV as yet. The premium on them seems to be about $200-300, and they provide nothing different than what you could get with a $100 blu-ray player... which also then can play your bluray and dvd media as well.The 'one remote' comment is still taken care of with a universal remote which is around $80 at worst.

So for less money overall, you can go to a larger size TV, play physical media as well as stream, and still have the opportunity for a single remote system if it's that big of a deal to have to just click power on a couple different remotes.

I honestly have not seen the point of getting a SmartTV as yet. The premium on them seems to be about $200-300, and they provide nothing different than what you could get with a $100 blu-ray player... which also then can play your bluray and dvd media as well.The 'one remote' comment is still taken care of with a universal remote which is around $80 at worst.

So for less money overall, you can go to a larger size TV, play physical media as well as stream, and still have the opportunity for a single remote system if it's that big of a deal to have to just click power on a couple different remotes.

I honestly have not seen the point of getting a SmartTV as yet. The premium on them seems to be about $200-300, and they provide nothing different than what you could get with a $100 blu-ray player... which also then can play your bluray and dvd media as well.The 'one remote' comment is still taken care of with a universal remote which is around $80 at worst.

So for less money overall, you can go to a larger size TV, play physical media as well as stream, and still have the opportunity for a single remote system if it's that big of a deal to have to just click power on a couple different remotes.

Where's the advantage of having your display have brains?

Find me a 3D TV that isn't also a smart TV. I wanted a plasma with active LCD shutter glasses to compliment my PC and PS3 for 3D gaming (I must admit the 3D is pretty spiffy on movies that support full HD frame sequential 3D). More over, manufacturers are planning to phase out dumb displays because they want to track users and sell that data to advertisers (a new revenue stream for TV makers).

I'm not particularly fond of the smart features either, as they're usually so poorly implemented, and handled so much better by 3rd party devices like PC's and various set top boxes from the likes of Apple, Roku, and many others. Unfortunately if you want a big TV, especially one with 3D, you're hosed on that front. And as stated above, you are unlikely to have a choice of having a non-Internet enabled device.

Can LG be trusted not to make it report back to them with the contents of your video library and watching habits - like current models?

I still prefer a dumb pc/monitor with my choice of htpc mini box with a nice customizable gui

@Akemi you can get internet enabled light bulbs(led)Then again some cars(jaguar) and most passenger aircraft have had very similar features for years - can tell the maintenance computer when they are getting close to end of life and need replacing.

Some of the new ip enabled flow meters are very handy for houses as they can show you your water use and help you monitor use and track down leaks/when things need replacing.

We just need a harder and faster push for standardisation of api's for equipment

What's the source for Smart TV currently being based on Google TV? Is this America only? I ask because I currently develop apps for LG Smart TVs as a second-party and I've never seen Google mentioned on the SDK documentation, let alone Google TV.

As far as I'm aware, LG currently uses a proprietary OS based on Linux and DirectFB (which you can see in their browser's user-agent) called Netcast.

Having owned both dumb and smart TV's. Give me a high quality dumb display and HTPC any day of the week. It's not only the most convenient option to use, it's also the most flexible. Best of all you're not stuck hoping the vendor will provide updates for the life of your TV once that vendor releases a new model.

"life of your TV" = 12 months + 1 day for most sets with a 1yr warranty. How many updates do you want in that length of time?

There's one thing I haven't seen reliably supported by another platform outside smart TVs (Maybe Roku), that's Hulu, Plex and Netflix on the same device.